From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Jan 6: Uploading process for all academic records of students to the National Academic Depository (NAD) would be speeded up and all necessary arrangements are being done towards this end, deputy chief minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, who is also the minister of higher education said in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
Karnataka is lagging quite a way behind in implementing this 'Digi-locker system' and so far achieved less progress, he said addressing a meeting on NAD implementation in State.
Dr Narayana said, “Three committees comprising of Empowered Committee, steering committee and project management unit have been entrusted to ensure the implementation at the earliest.’’
The Empowered group headed by the deputy chief minister and higher education minister will make a quarterly review about the project progress.
The Steering group headed by principal secretary/secretary of higher education will make a monthly review and the Project Management Unit headed by a project director from Centre for e-governance would drive the project execution at the ground level, he said.
Uploading of all the documents of the students, starting from Class 10 to post-doctoral to NAD needs to be completed.
"This will help students, education institutions, and employers to access certificates such as convocation certificates, mark sheets, and skill certificates. This also ensures safe storage, easy retrieval, and elimination of fraudulent practices such as unreasonable service fees, faking/forging of certificates and mark sheets,’’ he explained.
He said NAD was also expected to end the existing challenges such as having academic records in physical paper form, mutilation and loss of physical documents, time-consuming document retrieval process and difficulty in proving authenticity.
This NAD central digital depository of academic certificates is also said to be risk-free besides ensuring safe record keeping, efficient record retrieval, and enabling quick and reliable verification. It is also viewed as a step forward in the direction of the ‘Digital India’ drive, the minister explained.
The process involves Academic Institutions (AI) uploading digitally signed certificates on NAD with students’ DigiLocker ID and other relevant details. Students have to get registered on NAD via Aadhar Number and claim his/her certificates.
Upon completion of e-KYC, they can automatically claim the digital certificates from the NAD portal without applying to academic institutions (AIs). They also can share their verified certificates with employers and other stakeholders by giving the link.
The NAD system will store digitally signed awards in a standardized format and after uploading by AI, provides access to the student to his/her certificate. Verifier can verify academic records/mark sheets on NAD after the student gives access.
Amit a NAD central representative, participated in the meeting through video conference. Rajeev Chawla, ACS, department of e-governance, Kumar Naik, ACS, department of higher education, Pradeep, commissioner, department of collegiate education, Snehal, director, Pre-University Education, Sumangala, director, department of secondary education were present.
Expected Benefits
Safe recordkeeping
• No need for issuing duplicate academic certificates to students
• Effective deterrence to fake and forged paper certificates
Efficient record retrieval
• Immediate availability of academic certificates to students upon upload by academic institution
• Online, permanent record of academic certificates
No risk of damage
• No risk of losing, spoiling, damaging the academic certificates
• Anytime, anywhere and convenient access to academic certificates
Quick and reliable verification
• No need for students to apply for certificates
• Online, quick and reliable verification of academic certificates
• Reduction in cost, time, and efforts for verification.
• No risk of fake and forged certificates